Tag Archives: health coaching

Anyone that knows me is pretty well aware that I love to eat, and I love to cook. But what a lot of people don’t know about me is that, just over four years ago, I was morbidly obese.

Weighing in at 230 pounds on a 5’2″ frame, I was never happy with my body and constantly going on one failed diet after another. Although I had a lot of success with Weight Watchers in college, ultimately I made the difficult decision to undergo a gastric bypass on January 13, 2009.

I still remember waking up from the operation, and hating everything. My stomach hurt and I immediately regretted the decision. But that was then. A few days later, I recovered and began the arduous journey of losing weight once and for all. And it was a long weight loss journey, too, which eventually led me to a completely new lifestyle.

After a lifetime of picky eating, I forced myself to try new vegetables, started cooking healthier, sharing my desserts and trying to exercise. The working out still isn’t going too well, but my eating habits are wildly different. I started learning about different ways of eating, completed a health coaching degree from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and have really grown to love my new healthy habits. I still laugh remembering how much I claimed to hate broccoli five years ago, and how much I love it now. I even love to cook healthy for my friends and family (like last year’s Christmas chicken roast).

When I first started cooking healthier, my absolute favorite thing to do was learn how to make a childhood favorite in a healthy way. And since I grew up in a Cuban-Russian-American household, many of the dishes I made included brown rice with black beans, homemade chimichurri sauce and, most recently, baked sweet plantains.

For a while, I was sharing my recipes on a now-defunct blog before I had to give it up because life, and work, got too busy. Now I find that I’m missing writing about my adventures in (and out of) the kitchen, so here I am again–at Healthy Latin Food.

To be honest, I have a couple of pounds to lose, too. At my smallest, I was 120. These days I’m a little closer to 140 and, while I think I still look great, I’m not exactly thrilled with the number. Now I am using this (new) blog to propel me to lose a little weight, maybe start exercising and definitely to share my favorite healthy recipes. And, as you can probably guess from the title, it’s all about doing it with a delicious Latin twist.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years of cooking, weight loss and learning how to keep the weight off, it’s that good-for-you food can definitely taste good. It’s about fresh ingredients, unprocessed foods and, most of all, a great spice rack. I hope you’ll join me on this journey, cook some of my recipes and share food with plenty of sabor!

What is your favorite Latin recipe that you want to see made healthier?

Want more Healthy Latin Food? Follow me on Twitter and Instagram, become a fan on Facebook, or sign up to receive e-mail updates. And if you have any questions about cooking healthy or weight loss, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me. Thanks for reading!

About Me

I’m Irina Gonzalez, and this is my blog devoted to Healthy Latin Food (and more). I lost 100 pounds and gained a love of veggies!

Transforming my habits in and out of the kitchen, I eat (mostly) healthy food—usually with a Latin twist. Here I share my favorite original recipes, healthy eating tips and how I (try to) keep the weight off.